Wednesday

Odin after the Scandinavian Viking god "Odin, the Wanderer" 1886 by Georg von Rosen

Wednesday (pronounced /ˈwɛnzdeɪ, ˈwɛnzdi/ ( listen); in Britain also /ˈwɛdənzdeɪ, ˈwɛdənzdi/)^[1] is a day of the week in the Gregorian calendar. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. This day is between Tuesday and Thursday. The name is derived from Old English Wōdnesdæg and Middle English Wodnesday, which means "Wōden's day".

Pagan etymology

See Week-day names for more on naming conventions.

The name comes from the Middle English Wednes dei, which is from Old English Wōdnesdæg, meaning the day of the English god Woden (Wodan), a god in Anglo-Saxon England until about the 7th century. Wēdnes dæg is like the Old Norse Oðinsdagr ("Odin's day"), which is an early translation of the Latin dies Mercurii ("Mercury's day"), and reflects the widespread association of Woden with Mercury going back to Tacitus.

In Romance languages, it is derived from the name of the Roman god Mercury: mercredi (French), mercoledì (Italian), miércoles (Spanish), miercuri (Romanian), dimecres (Catalan), Marcuri or Mercuri (Corsican), dies Mercurii (Latin). Similarly, in most of the Indian Languages the name for Wednesday, Budhavar is derived from the Vedic name for the planet, Budha (often confused with Gautama Buddha or Buddha.) Buddh is also used in Urdu.

Weekday etymology

Wednesday is in the middle of the common Western 5-day workweek that starts on Monday and finishes on Friday. Also, when Sunday is taken as the first of every week, Wednesday is the day in the middle. The German name for the day, Mittwoch (literally: "mid-week"), replaced the former name Wodanstag ("Wodan's day") in the tenth century. Most Slavic languages follow this pattern and use derivations of "the middle" (Bulgarian сряда sryada, Croatian srijeda, Czech středa, Macedonian среда sreda, Polish środa, Russian среда sredá, Serbian среда/sreda, Slovak streda, Slovene sreda, Ukrainian середа sereda). The Finnish name is Keskiviikko ("middle of the week"), as is the Icelandic name: Miðvikudagur, and the Faroese name: Mikudagur ("Mid-week day"). Some dialects of Faroese have Ónsdagur, though, which shares etymology with Wednesday.

Portuguese uses the word quarta-feira, meaning "fourth day". While in Greek the word is Tetarti (Τετάρτη) meaning simply "fourth." Similarly, Arabic أربعاء means "fourth", Hebrew רביעי means "fourth" and Persian چهارشنبه means "fourth day." Yet the name for the day in Mandarin Chinese, 星期三 (xīngqí sān), means "day three", as Sunday is unnumbered.

Religious observances

The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday

The Creation narrative in the Hebrew Bible places the creation of the Sun and Moon on "the fourth day" of the divine workweek.

Quakers traditionally refer to Wednesday as "Fourth Day" to avoid the pagan associations that exist with the name "Wednesday".

The Eastern Orthodox Church observes Wednesday (as well as Friday) as a fast day throughout the year (with the exception of several fast-free periods during the year). Fasting on Wednesday and Fridays entails abstinence from meat or meat products (i.e., four-footed animals), poultry and dairy products. Unless a feast day occurs on a Friday, the Orthodox also abstain from fish, from using oil in their cooking and from alcoholic beverages (there is some debate over whether abstention from oil involves all cooking oil or only olive oil). For the Orthodox, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year commemorate the betrayal of Jesus (Wednesday) and the Crucifixion of Christ (Friday). There are hymns in the Octoekhos which reflect this liturgically. These include special Theotokia (hymns to the Mother of God) called Stavrotheotokia ("Cross-Theotokia"). The dismissal at the end of services on Wednesday begins with these words: "May Christ our true God, through the power of the precious and life-giving cross...."

In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the name for Wednesday also refers to fasting, as it is Dé Céadaoin in Irish Gaelic and Di-Ciadain in Scottish Gaelic, which comes from aoine, "fasting" and means "first day of fasting".

In American culture many Catholic and Protestant churches and some Jewish synagogues schedule study or prayer meetings on Wednesday nights. The sports calendar in many American public schools reflects this, reserving Mondays and Thursdays for girls' games and Tuesdays and Fridays for boys' games while generally avoiding events on Wednesday evening.

Cultural references

Wednesday is sometimes referred to as "hump day" in American English slang. The workweek is a conceived as a hill with midweek representing the highest point.

According to the Thai solar calendar, the color associated with Wednesday is green.

In the folk rhyme, "Wednesday's child is full of woe". In another rhyme reciting the days of the week, Solomon Grundy was 'Married on Wednesday.' In Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, the disagreeable nature of the weather is attributed to it being "Winds-Day" (a play on "Wednesday"). In Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar Wednesday is the day when the sun shines grey.

It is with these associations in mind that Wednesday sometimes appears as a character's name in works of fiction. These include Thursday's fictions by Richard James Allen, Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods, and works derived from the cartoon series The Addams Family. In the 1945 John Steinbeck novel Sweet Thursday, the titular day is preceded by "Lousy Wednesday".

A song titled "Wednesday's Song" is on the 2004 album Shadows Collide with People by John Frusciante, "Wednesday" is the title of a song on musician Tori Amos' "Scarlet's Walk" album.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a professional football club based in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.

Astrology

The astrological sign of the planet Mercury represents Wednesday -- Dies Mercurii to the Romans, with similar names in Latin-derived languages, such as the Italian Mercoledì ("dì" means "day"), the French Mercredi and the Spanish Miércoles. In English, this became "Woden's Day", since the Roman god Mercury was identified with Woden in northern Europe.

Named days

• Ash Wednesday, the first day of Roman Catholic Lent, occurs forty days before Easter, not counting Sundays.
• Holy Wednesday, sometimes called Spy Wednesday in allusion to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, is the Wednesday immediately preceding Easter.

References

External links